Q: I have heard rumors that the Water District will dump 500,000 gallons per day of sewage into Bear Creek. Is this true?

A: No. The Water District has been granted a permit to discharge up to 350,000 gallons of clean-recycled water into the creek as a “relief valve” for those occasions when heavy rains saturate the soil and prevent irrigation. (During those times in which clean-recycled water is released, Bear Creek will already have a higher-than-normal volume of water because of the rain.) On most days – about 345 days per year, on average – the Water District will be able to reuse the clean-recycled water to irrigate more than 100 acres of parks and trails in the Belterra community, conserving some 120 million gallons of precious groundwater per year.

Q: Will the discharge of Belterra’s water into Bear Creek harm the families and wildlife that live along the creek?

A: No. According to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, recycled wastewater that is cleaned and treated to the level planned by the Water District is not detrimental to wildlife and is safe enough for fishing, wading and recreational use. In fact, in the permit approved in February 2009, the TCEQ is requiring Belterra’s recycled water to adhere to unprecedented quality standards, which means it will be cleaner than the water discharged by any other community in Texas, including the City of Austin. And the clean-recycled water certainly will be cleaner than the runoff from rainwater that likely will be already flowing into Bear Creek on those days that the Water District must discharge.

Q: How often would the treated wastewater flow into Bear Creek and where would it go from there?

A: Based on historical rainfall data and scientific analysis, the Water District anticipates being able to use its clean-recycled water for irrigation about 345 days per year on average. On those infrequent occasions that any amount of clean-recycled water must be released into Bear Creek, it will be joining rainwater already likely to be flowing into the creek.

Q: Why does the Water District want to abandon its use of subsurface drip irrigation to dispose of wastewater?

A: The Water District will continue to use the subsurface drip irrigation system, and also will implement the practical and conservation-minded beneficial reuse solution as more families move into the community. To expand its capabilities and introduce a more conservation-minded approach, the Water District will implement its beneficial reuse plan to allow the Belterra community to reuse its clean-recycled water to irrigate more than 100 acres of parks and trails, thus conserving as much as 120 million gallons annually of precious groundwater that nourishes the aquifer.